Analysis: Apple's manufacturing comes home

Dec. 7, 2012
|

Apple CEO Tim Cook. / Eric Risberg AP

by Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

by Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - It amounts to a financial drop in the bucket, but the $100 million Apple is investing to make some Macs in the USA could be priceless for national manufacturing.

Apple is just one of several companies - Google is another - that has or plans to import manufacturing jobs stateside because of the economic and political advantages of producing them at home.

This week, Apple CEO Cook said the company will produce one of its existing lines of Mac computers in the U.S. next year. He offered no other details.

Talk about your 180-degree turn for Apple.

Steve Jobs famously - and reportedly - told President Obama, "Those jobs aren't coming back," when asked at a dinner in early 2011 whether Apple would consider shifting some manufacturing to the U.S. from China.

This is Tim Cook's softer, gentler Apple, however. Since he took over as CEO more than a year ago, the company has revamped its stance on manufacturing. This year, he visited Chinese factories amid complaints about the working conditions for assemblers of Apple products. Foxconn promised to limit working hours and raise wages.

Glance at Cook's resume and you'll also see why Apple is partially returning to manufacturing parts in the U.S. - as it did until about a decade ago.

Cook, 52, burnished a reputation as a master in day-to-day operations. That means more manufacturing jobs may be coming home.